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How has your experience on Haystack been so far?

Honestly, it's just been a breeze. So easy. It's nice to have someone take care of the things that either you don't have time to do, or just don't know how to do. It was my first time properly recruiting, so it was really helpful to have the team at Haystack to help guide me through the process. It’s been a really, really seamless experience.

I felt like there was no such thing as silly questions. I felt really heard and understood, like they really cared about what I wanted. I just want to thank the whole Haystack team. It's been such a breath of fresh air to have found you guys and to have felt guided along this very difficult journey. What should be difficult was just not difficult for us at all, so I'm very, very grateful. I'm excited to see how our new guys get on. I know them coming from Haystack is a good thing, so I'm sure that they will smash it.

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Can you tell me about your experience with ‘traditional’ recruiters that you were using prior to launching on Haystack?

I've not had the best experience with recruiters. I feel like with a lot of them, it's just cold emails or even phone calls. They find your phone number, they find your email, and then they harass you for weeks and weeks. It's not the experience that I've had with Haystack at all - it was a great interaction from the get go.

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How did Haystack compare to those recruiters?

The minute that I reached out, the conversation was booked in straight away. It was easy, and they helped me when I wasn't sure what to do. With other recruiters, it felt very salesy. It didn't feel like that with Haystack. It was very much ‘we want to help you’, and it made me feel like they were really there to help me, rather than helping themselves.

I didn't know what to expect, but within the minute we had that first conversation, all my worries were just gone. I knew this was going to be an easy experience. I didn't have to do anything, I didn't have to initiate anything, it was just like all prepared there. If I had a question, it was easy and I felt heard.

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What challenges were you faced with before launching on Haystack?

‍Oh my gosh, I had hundreds of unsuitable CVs coming my way. It makes such a difference having developers hand picked by people who know what you're looking for. I was using LinkedIn before and with the first guy that we hired, we didn't go down the traditional hiring route. It was through a personal recommendation, who put me in touch with the person and got the CV. The thought of having to go through that process knowing that we're going to hire two, I thought, I can't go through hundreds of CVs on LinkedIn. I can't do it. And so I thought it's better to find people who know what you're looking for, who have contacts, who have a database full of people. It's been such a relief to not have to go digging myself because there's just so much out there. You don't know what you're looking for, and you don't know where to even start looking. And then when you do get those CVs, it's just too overwhelming, and a lot of them are not even a good match.

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How has your hiring process changed since launching on Haystack?

I'm never looking back now that I’ve found Haystack. There's no way I would go back to any of the other traditional methods. It's just been such a breeze, and being able to access all that information in one place has been so easy. The calls that we've had scheduled weekly to stay on top of things made things a lot easier. I tend to get carried away with things I'm working on, I lose track of time, so to have that weekly scheduled meeting just to stay on top of the whole thing really helped. I honestly think if it wasn't for all of that and the way that it was structured, we never would have hired so quick. I did not expect to find these people so quickly and to just get it done so fast. It's been such a headache that has been avoided because of the whole experience.

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What makes Haystack stand out from other hiring platforms?

My relationship and interactions with the people I worked with, Harriet and Jack, made this experience so good. They were so nice, and they were just not salesy, they weren't in there for themselves. They were really keen to give these amazing developers a chance to have a chat with me and just get their CVs in front of me. 

Also, the talent and the quality of the developers that they put in front of me as well. To me it was fantastic because I wouldn't even know where to find these people. I'd say that was definitely a massive plus.

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What would your advice be to other hiring managers that are struggling with their tech hiring?

Stop wasting your time with recruiters. Stop wasting your time on Google. Just go straight to Haystack. They know what they're doing, the quality of the developers is unmatched from what I've seen anywhere else, and they are the friendliest bunch. They just really want to help, and it really feels that way when you speak with them. Honestly, I would not go anywhere else.

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